Rationale

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Future requirements for organizations caring for the aged in Germany

1.1. The care of the aged sector as an economic factor

Discussion of the Third Sector and the future of the social security systems as well as the introduction of the age care insurance have created a stronger awareness of social organizations for the care of the aged in Germany as an economic and employment policy factor.

The services sector has been recognized as the biggest growth market of the past few years, with the independent organizations of welfare care providing over 50% of all social services connected with people. Residential and mobile facilities for the elderly have been able to participate in this growth and to expand in recent years. This growth is mirrored, for instance, in the increasing number of places in old people's homes run by the Paritaetische and other umbrella organizations of Independent Welfare Care in Baden Wuerttemberg during the past few years. According to the State Statistics Office, 34,137 persons were employed in institutional care in Baden Wuerttemberg as of 1 January 1999. According to Federal statistics on care services, some 12,000 people were estimated to be employed in mobile welfare services in Baden Wuerttemberg at the end of 1999.

1.2. The necessity of developing the social services economy in the field of care for the aged

As a result of the introduction of the age care insurance, however, this expansion and the upswing in the age care sector have been accompanied by considerable internal changes and restructuring measures. On the one hand, demographic investigations on the expected ageing of the population in Baden Wuerttemberg show that this sector will exhibit growth rates of up to 25% in the years up to 2010.

In view of this situation, there is a necessity to take account of the increasing social and economic significance of the age care sector via further professionalization in organization, management and personnel development, and to create workplaces in a target oriented way while at the same time improving workplace quality.

The increased and co ordinated efforts of those participating in the project submitted is intended as a contribution towards enabling the Third Sector to fulfil the expectations placed in it as a vehicle of hope for the modernization of State and Society. The insistence by the Economic and Social Committee of the European Parliament that the socio political agenda of the EU should decide on a plan of campaign for the development of the social services economy precisely corresponds, in its intentions, to the necessity of improving workplaces in the field of social services via structural developments, of creating new, high quality workplaces and permanent job security in Baden Wuerttemberg, too.

The project sees itself as a contribution towards the socio political agenda of the Union, no longer only just to create more jobs above all for those individuals who have been edged out of the labour market, but rather to give particular attention to the quality of these new jobs in the field of care for the aged.

2. Changes in the framework and financing conditions

2.1. Economization of the Third Sector

The economization of the Third Sector has been a much discussed topic for many years and has, at many levels, led to a stronger realization of the need for economic action within the organizations. There is certainly resistance to an unrestrained economization of the Third Sector since any entrepreneurial activity in this sector must of necessity also take account of the specific requirements, i.e. the social effects and the culture of the enterprise concerned, not to mention the ethical background of decisions (in the case of organizations with a church background).

Within this development, care of the aged is one of the advanced sectors in which the transition from the principle of cost coverage to payment for performance and remuneration for care as pricing factors took place in Germany as early as 1995. Additionally, the freedom of customer choice prescribed by law particularly in the field of non residential care has led to a differentiation of services in the sense of increased customer orientation.

Thus the introduction of age care insurance has, over the past few years, considerably increased cost pressure on age care organizations. This has a wide variety of consequences for social organizations ranging from setting up a documentation apparatus via the increasing demands on administration right up to the top management echelons of the organizations.

2.2. Transition from the right to receive care and attention to service contracts and invitations to tender such as the framework contract in accordance with Paragraph 93 of the Federal Social Assistance Act (BSHG)

Generally a tendency can be observed among the funding agencies to move from the position where beneficiaries enjoy the right to receive care and attention to service contracts and invitations to tender. For residential care for the aged, this transition has been in place since 1 January 1995.

In Baden Wuerttemberg, the framework contract relating to Paragraph 93 of the BSHG is almost complete. This will place the financing of non residential services on a new foundation. For Paragraph 93, services must be precisely described in order to guarantee efficient use of funds.

The non residential age care services concerned must adjust to the new situation and establish the corresponding capacities for economic transparency and the documentation apparatus.

2.3. Stronger competition from private age care providers

In many areas, local government and independent charitable organizations are no longer the sole providers of social services. As early as 1995, the age care insurance legislation put private and independent charitable organizations on the same footing. The consequence of this has been that, in the past few years, large segments of the age care market have been carved out by private and commercial providers. Their share of the market is, at present, some 20 25%. The social services organizations must face this competition and strengthen their own specific ethical and public service profiles.

2.4. Uncertainty due to the lack of clarity in applying European legislation on competition to the Third Sector and the future of the subsidiarity principle

There is great uncertainty in the entire sector of independent charitable organizations due to the lack of clarity in the situation with regard to the application of European legislation on competition to the Third Sector. Ever since the EU Commission once more raised the topic in its announcement dated 20 September 2000 under the watchword “Provision for Existence”, numerous statements have been issued by independent and public welfare organizations calling on the Federal German government to work out a clear distinction between non profit making activities and those exhibiting a general economic interest, yet no clarification of the matter has been achieved so far.

Objective

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The EP counts among its members the umbrella organizations of Independent Welfare Care in Baden Wuerttemberg, the members of which maintain most of the age care establishments in Baden Wuerttemberg, representatives of the local government umbrella organizations, of the regional labour office and of the trade unions as well as representatives of old people's co operative societies, the regional association of the disabled and various bodies maintaining institutions for the support of the aged.

The EP has an integrated approach to action: in order to permanently improve the personnel situation in care for the aged, the organizations themselves are approached, on the one hand. Workplace quality and as a particularly important sector personnel development are to be improved. The long term aim is to enable attractive workplaces to be offered in the age care sector.

On the other hand, the aim is to open up, in the short term, new employment potential for the unemployed, for instance, or for female staff wishing to get back into employment in order to relieve the acute shortage of personnel.

The EP is active in the field of three main topics:

1. Improving personnel development at those bodies engaged in caring for the aged

2. Improving the quality of workplaces within the social work sector

3. Creating new opportunities for employment in institutions caring for the aged

Main topic 1: Improving personnel development at those bodies engaged in caring for the aged

1. Specialized workgroup

The specialized workgroup sifts through existing suggestions for improvements in the personnel development in the field of care for the aged. It discusses the results of analyses and benchmarking with the aim of

identifying best practices, finding possibilities for implementing personnel development planing, further developing and improving the further training measures on offer, developing modular opportunities for further training.

2. Utilization of benchmarking for the further development of age care services in Baden Wuerttemberg

The aim of this benchmarking is the further development of personnel career development and personnel development planning in the care of the aged. Examples of best practice approaches are to be identified and given practical usability for those participating in the benchmarking process. The subject of this benchmarking is the process of personnel development in the organizations involved in caring for the aged. The aim of benchmarking here is the optimization of this process. The desired gain in knowledge makes the use of sector benchmarking desirable, so only age care services participate in this process.

First of all the subject of the benchmarking process, the parameters and aims, are precisely determined. In a preliminary analysis, the effectiveness of personnel development to date is determined. Here the investigation carried out by Steinebach Stoebener may be applied.

The indicators for a comparison of the organizations are worked out on the basis of the EU Commission's ideas of workplace quality. The results of this benchmarking will be used not only within individual organizations but also in a suitable form to develop an overall conception of personnel development planning.

3. Overall personnel development planning conception

On the basis of the results of the benchmarking process, an overall conception for personnel development planning for the age care sector is developed. This takes the current trends and forecast developments in care for the aged into account and refers not only just to the field of staff further training but also to the entire sector of personnel planning: requirement for qualified staff, part time staff, personnel recruitment, training, opportunities for promotion etc. The results of the other activities within the project will be integrated into this conception and made usable for the individual organizations by providing them with the method for determining the personnel development requirements.

4. Model projects

The personnel development planning conception is implemented in an exemplary fashion by the participating organizations, while the further training courses or in house seminars are carried out at the individual locations themselves.

5. Further training measures for management and staff representatives

One important mainstream component of the EP consists in the implementation of further training measures and multplicator training sessions at which the results of the analyses and conceptions are passed on.

These further training sessions deal with: improvement of opportunities for promotion, improvement of work organization, flexibilization of working hours

The aim of further training is, above all, to enable participants to assume leadership responsibility. Particular emphasis is laid on the participation of a corresponding number of women and part time workers in these measures.

Main topic 2. Improvement in the quality of workplaces in the social sector of the economy

1. Specialized workgroup

In the new strategy of the EU Commission for long term investments to improve the quality of workplaces and the standard of living, submitted on 26 June 2001, the Commission's ideas on workplace quality are given concrete form. These indicators form the basis for the work of the specialized workgroup.

The specialized workgroup weighs up the existing scope for improvements in working conditions in the care of the aged.

The EP may not disregard the interests and needs of those employed in this field. The aim is to improve the working conditions of all staff, male and female. The attractiveness of this vocation consists in the visible improvement in the flexibility of working hours to match the employees' own wishes regarding working hours. This is guaranteed by the participation of the employees' representatives in the specialized workgroup.

The aim is to improve work organization to increase the attractiveness of age care workplaces.

2. Analysis of workplace quality

A scientific analysis of workplace quality at the organizations responsible for caring for the aged in Baden Wuerttemberg is produced. Here the questions of how to evaluate the quality of workplaces for women, for part time staff, for older employees and immigrants employed are treated separately. Special attention is to be given to the analysis of promotion opportunities for women.

3. Supra sectoral work organization benchmarking

Action 1 involves looking for suitable partners in the commercial sector in order to carry out supra sectoral benchmarking to improve internal operational procedures in the organizations. Comparisons could, for instance, be made with the hotel and catering trade.

Action 2 contains the setting up of the benchmarking procedure (identification of the critical processes, internal analysis, determining the process effectiveness, comparison phase etc.). The aim of the procedure is to achieve a further improvement and synchronization of the operational procedures via co operation, for instance, between the professional groups, shifting domestic and transportation work to other staff groups, outsourcing etc.

4. Model projects

The results generated by the workgroup as to those instances where co operation between those involved opens up scope for action for organizations caring for the aged to improve workplace quality are to be tested practically in model experiments.

Provision has thus been made for model experiments with promotion plans for women, new forms of working time flexibility, innovations in work organization. One model project will deal with working out technical assistance for the care of the aged.

All model experiments will include precise analysis of the effects of such changes on women and female immigrants.

Main topic 3. Creation of new employment opportunities in organizations caring for the aged

1. Offers for women returning to work

Women returning to work are seen as the principal resources still available on the labour market for whom tailor made qualification and training could provide access to an activity in the field of care for the aged.

For women returning to work who have already undergone corresponding initial vocational training or who have gained corresponding experience via periods of looking after children or the infirm, refresher courses, “whiffer” courses, internships and company training measures are offered throughout Baden Wuerttemberg.

2. Job rotation

At three locations in Baden Wuerttemberg, access to the job rotation model for the age care professions is to be offered.

Job rotation guarantees the combination of vocational further training of employees and the acquisition of new staff. It is thus precisely matched to the requirements of the age care professions.

For the duration of the further training of trained or untrained staff to the levels of assistants or examined specialists, these staff members are replaced by suitable unemployed persons, returnees, female immigrants, interested males. These latter will gain practical experience and will have an opportunity of being offered employment by the age care organization concerned.

The target group for job rotation within age care organizations comprises, in particular, untrained and trained staff. Rotation models to assist the promotion of women with leadership potential are, however, also conceivable.